In February 2021 DKV Mobility launched its Green Pledge. With this Pledge, the company committed itselve to not only help its customers to reduce the carbon intensity of their fleets by 30 % until 2030, but also to become climate positive for its own operations already in 2023.

To achieve this ambitious 2023 goal, DKV Mobility has already put many projects and initiatives in place to reduce our Corporate Carbon Footprint emissions. Beginning of the year, the company was able to announce the next milestone on this journey: The start of the DKV Mobility Climate Forest.

The forest is located in Freguesias de Tavares, Portugal and has a size of 190,000 m² or 19 hectares. The vastness of this Forest is equivalent to the size of 27 football fields. Together with Land Life, DKV Mobility planted 13,000 trees, contributing to CO2 benefit of 3,000 tons in total. Through an online dashboard, the growth progress of the trees can easily be monitored remotely, at any time.

Land Life Company is a Dutch company that specialises in nature conservation and effective tech driven tree planting. The company is committed to a high-tech approach to smart reforestation and biodiverse species. They are active in 25 countries on four continents. Land Life Company has already planted around 3.7 million trees worldwide and is fighting the global problem of deforestation. Across the world, there are two billion hectares of degraded land – an area the size of South America. “At the COP26 we learnt that deforestation is a global challenge with regards to climate protection. More than 100 global leaders committed themselves to fight against deforestation. We want to contribute to this by investing in this forest in Portugal.”, says Marc Erkens, Head of Sustainability, New Mobility and Public Affairs.

The DKV Mobility Climate Forest will also help to bring back biodiversity to that dedicated site in Portugal and to protect the area from wildfires. Reversing forest loss and land degradation are very effective solutions to protect our climate as trees are one of the best and most efficient carbon capture technology. The forest will also support the region by creating jobs, infrastructure and ensuring stability for the people living in that area.

To kick off the project, the first tree - a Hawthorne- was planted at DKV Mobility headquarters in Ratingen as a symbolic gesture. The Hawthorne is one of the 11 tree species that are planted in Portugal and will from now on connect the company to the Portuguese forest.

Trees are one of the most efficient ways to store CO2. By investing in the forest, DKV Mobility takes an active step in the fight against climate change. “It is a project that you can visit, where we can see with our dashboard that the trees are actually growing and how much carbon is being sequestered. And it's a real project and you can see it here live at site, which makes it really special”, concludes Laura Cremer-Heesen, Program Manager Sustainability & New Mobility.